1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a buttress for shoes.
The buttress of the present invention is in particular destined to sports shoes and it has orthopaedic aims.
2. Prior Art
As is well known, buttresses are placed in the heel of shoes to enhance their sturdiness and at the same time assure a greater stability of the foot.
Buttresses in use today have a horse-shoe planar development, and nearly all have a growing height from the front edges towards the centre of the rear area. The need to assure good stability to the foot, however, sometimes clashes with particular physical needs.
The Achilles heel area can be subject to different pathologies and injuries. For instance, in particularxe2x80x94but not onlyxe2x80x94in the sporting field, tendinitis, bursitis, and even rupture of the Achilles heel, which may require surgery to heal, are a very frequent occurrence.
Persons suffering from said pathologies undergo varying measures of discomfort when they have to use shoes with traditional rigid buttresses, in particular when they participate in sporting activities.
In addition, such pathologies are sharply more frequent in athletes, in particular professional ones, who subject the Achilles tendon to greater stresses and who at the same time cannot avoid taking part in sporting activities.
Over the years, some solutions have been developed to try solving said problem.
A first solution is proposed, for instance, by patent DE 2830398, which discloses a buttress having globally traditional shape, but provided in correspondence with the area of origin of the Achilles heel with a U-shaped cavity closed with an elastic material. A second solution, disclosed in patent DE 4316228, provides for the buttress to have two lateral portions joined by a thin band of material around the base of the heel.
Both described prior art solutions, however, have drawbacks.
In regard to the first solution, wherein the buttress has a U-shaped cavity closed by a soft material, it is useful only if the lesion of the Achilles heel is located centrally on the tendon.
If the lesion is instead located laterally relative to the tendon (which is a very frequent occurrence) it is continually stressed by the rigid part of the buttress, with the risk of further aggravation. On the other hand, the cavity cannot be made too ample, or else the buttress would lose the characteristics of sturdiness which constitute the primary aim of its usage.
In regard to the second described solution, it discloses, rather than a buttress, a lateral protection system of the heel, lacking the characteristics of a buttress.
In this situation, the technical task constituting the basis for the present invention is to obtain a buttress for shoes that overcomes the aforementioned drawbacks.
In particular, a technical task of the present invention is to obtain a buttress for shoes able to be used also by persons suffering from Achilles heel pathologies, without having to forego the foot stability provided by traditional buttresses.
The specified technical task and the indicated aims are substantially achieved by a buttress for shoes, as described in the accompanying claims.